Mini 2 Caught in Some Kind of "Startup Loop"?

So I took my Mini 2 out today for it's first field test in the woods, and it seems to be caught in some kind of restarting loop now?

It will display "Garmin", the warnings about needing a subscription, and then "test before you go".

If I press the OK button, it will briefly bring me to the main menu for a few seconds, then it cycles back to "Garmin" and the startup sequence again.

If I quickly select "send preset", it will send a message SOMETIMES, but when they are received most of them did not have any location attached.

The device also chewed thru 30%+ of it's battery on a 5 hour hike today, and it's still sitting on my desk cycling in the loop.

I've tried the restart sequence of connecting to a computer and holding the back/power buttons for 10 seconds. The device will turn off, but then it reboots and goes back to the looping behavior when you turn it back on.

Tried to restore the device to factory defaults, but you can't select thru the menus fast enough to get to that option before the device restarts and begins looping again?

I also noted that it seemed to be cycling a connection with my Fenix 7x Sapphire. While hiking the watch had high battery drain and keep spinning the green circle with "complete" message intermittently?

As part of the troubleshooting procedure I've turned off the Bluetooth connection to my phone and unpaired the Mini 2 from my Fenix 7 and attempted to reset the mini again...still no dice.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

arockclimber

Top Replies

Steve over 3 years ago in reply to arockclimber +1

I've learned to buy all my Garmin devices through REI. Unfortunately, I had to return 3 watches in 2019 before I found a fenix that wouldn't crash every time I used it at altitude.

All Replies

0 arockclimber over 3 years ago

OK, finally managed to get unit to do a full reset and return to factory defaults. Paired again via phone and Garmin Explore, sent a couple of test messages that did transmit and receive successfully. Leave it on my desk for a few minutes and come back...it's doing the restart looping thing again. Must have gotten a bad unit, guess I'm sending this back to REI for an exchange?

0 Steve over 3 years ago in reply to arockclimber

arockclimber, Mine was weird until I set up the account from my PC. Don't remember if it was THAT weird. But I find all of the Garmin web-based services to be really unreliable and hang up all the time. Took me a few tries to set up the service and every time I try to log in to Explorer it hangs.

That said, once I had the account set up and paired the device to the account and the phone and the watch, the device sync has been really smooth. My watch automatically loaded the InReach apps and brings in the Mini 2 every time I start an activity (if it's on).

0 twolpert over 3 years ago in reply to arockclimber

This behavior is not normal. If you are sure you actually succeeded with the factory reset, then should either open a support ticket or return it (if REI will still accept it).

For future reference, you can reset a non-responsive device this way:

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=QIpm6OKYTv41VE8vHn92o6#:~:text=To%20Factory%20Restore%20the%20inReach%20Mini&text=Press%20and%20hold%20Back%2C%20Down,let%20go%20of%20all%20buttons.&text=Press%20and%20hold%20SOS%20until,power%20off%20after%20several%20seconds.

Sorry about the long URL. It's what I got when I searched.

After your reset, did you have to repeat the outdoor portion of the activation? If not, you didn't really get a factory reset.

0 arockclimber over 3 years ago in reply to twolpert

I was successful in the factory reset, unit showed the gear symbol and status bar, it took a while.

The reset appeared to have worked, I had to re-pair the device, sync it to satellites outside, and reset all preferences.

Unit seemed to work correctly for a brief time, but then began the restarting loop behavior again.

Ordered another unit from REI and sent the first one back. Hopefully will have more luck this time!

0 Steve over 3 years ago in reply to arockclimber

I've learned to buy all my Garmin devices through REI. Unfortunately, I had to return 3 watches in 2019 before I found a fenix that wouldn't crash every time I used it at altitude.

0 coloradofun over 3 years ago in reply to arockclimber

I have the exact same issue that you describe, did you have to replace yours

0 arockclimber over 3 years ago in reply to coloradofun

Yep, I replaced it thru REI, the new unit I received is working as intended.

0 coloradofun over 3 years ago in reply to arockclimber

Thanks for your help I tried everything still rebooting even with a factory reset. So today I exchanged at REI, now all is good and working!

0 Steve over 3 years ago in reply to coloradofun

coloradofun, sorry, just saw this. My Mini 2 seems to have worked great from the start. It just took me a while to figure it out.
The only issue I've had, noted in another thread, is a problem using the remote function from the watch. That's a great feature but it turns out there is a bug that omits location and link information if you send messages from your wrist. Garmin says they're working on it.